Boards Beef Discussion Group

reilig wrote: »

I know I have said all of this before at different stages, but for the benefit of anyone in the group I'll give my view on reseeding again.

When I was young, I never thought that reseeding could be an option for the type of land that we have. 80% of our land is upland with very shallow soil - 2 or 3 inches at best. Its very heavy land and gives us a 6 month winter (November to April inclusive). The last 20% of our land is bog. It sits on a gravel and is dry 365 days per year. Its great grass growing ground, and a huge asset to the farm for to have early grass to get cattle out. Only problem is not having enough of it. In the last 5 years we have reseeded 50 acres of our upland. It was the first reseed that it ever got - Our bogland was used for growing crops in the past (Cabbage plants, carrots, potatoes and strawberries) and was reseeded when brought back into pasture on rotation.

A simple estimate that I have is that reseeding increased grass growth by approximately 30%. Silage quality and quantity is much improved and we get a much better response from slurry an fertilizer than the unreseeded ground. Our motto with slurry is small quantities, but often (2 or 3 times per year) to prevent leaving us with soft ground).

This reseed has also brough early grass to the upland part of the farm which has its good and bad sides. In a dry spring (such as the one that we had), lighter cattle were out early on the grass and they did little or no damage. When there is a wet spring, cattle can't graze it. Its left to the sheep - the numbers that we have aren't able for it all, so we often have to top before taking the fields up for meadow.

Another big positive of reseeding on our farm has been the virtual elimination of rushes and sprat on the reseeded ground. There's still the odd wet place with rushes, but all in all, most have been eliminated, and remain eliminated.

Now to how its done - as someone pointed out, there's a million ways to skin a cat! A simple and cheap reseed works as well for me as a €300 per acre reseed works in good land. I spray, I chain harrow, I lime, I cover with slurry, I chain harrow one or two more times and then I spread the grass seed mixed with the fertilizer using a wagtail spreader, spreading at a low rate of application and using a chris-cross pattern to ensure that I go over each area twice. Then I roll.

I have all my own machinery, except for the lime spreader. My total costs are very low, and I achieve good results.

The point that I would like to make is that anyone can reseed their land - no matter what your depth of soil (unless you are on a mountain). If you want to increase the output of your farm without buying extra land, reseeding is a value for money option!!

Pharaoh1 wrote: »

Don't know a lot about levellers or levelling bars but I'm sure there are different types.
My contractor has a machine on wheels with 5 what are like plough shares turned sideways (but a bit angled) to level the ground and a very light ring roller behind and it does a great job.
I'm not sure about the likes of the simple Fleming type land leveller.

Another thing I see a lot of posters here and on other threads including lime when reseeding. Surely it should only be included if a soil test requires it or is it the opinion that it should go in regardless.

49801 wrote: »

even still!
5 runs of a leveler sounds an awful lot... perhaps it was to deal with the puffy finish of a rotavator?